Palmer Blog
June 28, 2010
On a call the other day I had someone comment they were the “incredible shrinking company”. Although a few industries proved to be recession proof, most of us had to take a hard look at our business and make significant changes to ensure sustainability. I value old sayings like “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” and “Necessity is the mother of invention”. The immediacy of shrinking business revenues forces us to take […]
June 23, 2010
When my kids were small, a regular routine at bedtime was telling them a story. I would sit at the top of the stairs and weave a tale inspired by recent events of one sort or another. Their favourite was about an old lady who lived deep in the woods. The Bucket Lady, as she came to be called, loved to catch children and scrub them clean when they were careless enough to enter her […]
June 11, 2010
By definition psychographics is not an insane graphic artist as depicted in the accompanying photo but is “The use of demographics to study and measure attitudes, values, lifestyles, and opinions for marketing purposes.” To further explain, “even though you may have determined your demographic group, people within that group still have very different perceptions about the benefits or value of your product and will be motivated for different reasons. These differences are known as psychographics. To […]
June 4, 2010
In a conference this past week I had the pleasure to listen to panel discussions from the viewpoint of shippers, carriers, financial analysts and other industry sectors. It was enlightening to say the least. I’ve already blogged on the topic of what the large retail shipper is looking for and also how best to handle the delicate subject of rate increases. The shippers know they’ve had a good run and won’t be surprised by rate […]
May 31, 2010
I’ve only been blogging for a couple of months now but I’ve seen the benefits and I’m definitely a believer. Because we track everything we do, we can directly attribute a significant increase in our web rankings on Google to our blog efforts. Jerry, who manages our Web, IT and SEO and Robin who heads up our Promotional Services are also frequent bloggers on our site. From my perspective, there is no shortage of marketing […]
May 28, 2010
At Palmer Marketing we do our utmost to keep current with design and marketing trends. We also attend various industry functions to further understand the challenges the transportation industry is facing. The take aways from a recent conference are as follows: What are large shippers looking for when selecting carriers? Commitment to timing, now more than ever EDI interface Modern equipment and financial stability Proactive solutions to maximize consolidation opportunities and utilization Solutions away from […]
I started Palmer Marketing at age 34 in January of 1988. I had 2 kids in diapers and a crazy idea about running my own company. I came from an entrepreneurial family and had no good reason to believe it wasn’t possible and as it happens, it was.
I’m definitely a country girl. I didn’t grow up in an actual town, village or hamlet. It was more like the middle of somewhere along Highway 28, surrounded by trees. Many thanks goes to my high school art teacher, Mr. Edwards, for inspiring me to choose this career path. With the realization that I actually could create art for a living, college lured me away from country life to the big city. Kitchener, to be exact, to study Graphic Design & Advertising at Conestoga College. Talk about beginning an adventure and a culture shock! Not staring at people with purple, green or some other wildly coloured hair was a bit of a challenge. City buses (lol thinking back), who knew they only stopped on the same side of the street as the bus stop sign!? Lesson learnt.
I love my work like I love summer. Why not? Summer is when I get to play my favorite sport—golf! Playing artist is a lot like playing golf. You need to be calm and cool under pressure if you ever hope to keep the ball in play; that’s rare for an artist. My best shots happen when I talk less and concentrate more; that’s not so rare for an artist.
I am the 8th of 9 children raised in Essex County outside of Windsor, Ontario. We lived on a gravel road, no sidewalks and our greatest adventures were in our own backyard. I still have friends I made in grade 1 and continue to stay in touch today. After graduating from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, I moved to the big city of Toronto and have worked most of my career in the printing industry. I got to know the folks at Palmer Marketing as a key supplier to them for over a decade.
To say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree would be an understatement in my family; at least when it comes to picking a career path. There isn’t a person in my immediate family that hasn’t at some point or another worked in the IT field. I guess there’s something in our DNA that pulls us towards computers.